On October 23 of the sixth year of Xingqian, it seemed that this day was no different from the past, but when the "New Fu'an," which sailed from Nagasaki into Haizhou, sailed into Haizhou Port, it immediately caused a sensation in Haizhou.

The Japanese envoy is coming!

Although the arrival of the Japanese envoys to China did not seem to be big news, for those merchants engaged in trade with Japan in Haizhou, they almost immediately smelled a strange smell.

Japan has been locked off for decades, according to Japan's lockdown order Japanese ships to trade at sea and the Japanese to communicate with overseas must be punished by death, so, there has always been only the Ming ship to Japan trade, and not see the Japanese ship to the Ming Dynasty, although this time the Japanese mission is to Haizhou on the merchant ship of the Ming Dynasty, but these businessmen still feel the crisis, they are worried that the trade monopoly on Japan will be broken.

And the concerns of the merchants, especially the reaction of the Beiyang Chamber of Commerce, are even stronger.

"What a good thing this is!"

As the new president of the Beiyang Chamber of Commerce, Wang Mingchuan looked a little uneasy.

In fact, being able to become the president of the Beiyang Chamber of Commerce was completely unexpected by him, after all, the reputation of the Wang family was not very good, and his great-grandfather migrated to Yangzhou in his early years. Three passed here, for the two Huai big salt Jia. When the Manchu Yu prince Duoduo went south to Yangzhou, his father Wang Wende and his brother Wang Wenjian donated all their family wealth of 300,000 taels to the Qing army, begging not to kill innocents. Although it seems to be begging for the people of Yangzhou, it can also be understood as a "rewarder" who donated 300,000 taels of silver, after all, his donation did not protect the people of Yangzhou, but only the Wang family.

Because of this, for many years, Wang Mingchuan has been cautious, not daring to cross the thunder pool by half a step, lest he be held accountable by the imperial court, and this time he was elected as the president of the Chamber of Commerce, perhaps because of his indisputable character.

But now, the sudden arrival of the Japanese mission made him have to deal with it cautiously.

"In the event of the opening of Japan, how should our chamber of commerce deal with it?"

Trade with Japan has always been the main business of the Beiyang Chamber of Commerce, although in the past few years, the Beiyang Chamber of Commerce has opened up a number of analysis routes, and even extended its hand to the South Seas, but its profits often come from the monopoly of Japanese trade, so once Japan cancels the lockdown, it will naturally have a serious impact on the Beiyang businessmen.

"President, now this matter, in the next view, is no longer something we can control, but, in the next view, even if Japan opens the sea, it will be a while and a half, and they will not be able to restore the prosperity of shipping back then, so we should have a few years, and we still have to prepare in a hurry."

Mei Wenshan looked at the president and said, in his opinion, the opening of the sea is not necessarily a bad thing for the Beiyang Chamber of Commerce, after all, the Beiyang Chamber of Commerce cannot sit on trade with Japan forever.

"Preparation is to be done, but I am afraid that I will not be able to prepare for a while...... Hey......"

While shaking his head and sighing, Wang Mingchuan asked again.

"What's going on with those widows?"

"President Hui, those widows are fine. Every day, we nod and bow politely. They only often ask when they can go to Zhongdu, and in general their emotions are very stable, but they seem to be very curious about everything, and some of them even ask for books directly. ”

Mei Wenshan, who is also the associate director of the Chamber of Commerce, truthfully reported that it was he who was now receiving the Japanese mission.

"Buying books? The Four Books and Five Classics can be given to them, as for the rest, they can't be given to them, after all, this is the requirement of the imperial court, and good wine and food are entertained, as for the rest, let's not consider them! ”

Of course, the imperial court is still hesitating about how to receive the mission, but while asking the Chamber of Commerce to come forward to receive it, it also specifically requires that the Japanese must be monitored to prevent them from understanding the Ming Dynasty.

"We don't need to worry about this, the imperial court has already sent someone to take care of this matter."

Because the Beiyang Chamber of Commerce monopolized the relationship with Japan, Mei Wenshan naturally knew that the imperial court had an attitude towards Japan, and every merchant ship of the Beiyang Chamber of Commerce sailed to Japan had a military director of the Military Division, and even the Beiyang Chamber of Commerce would train its own captains and sailors to cooperate with the work of the Military Division.

"It's no wonder that the imperial court doesn't want Japan to know that the world is changing rapidly, in fact, this is also good for us, if the Japanese know that our Ming Dynasty has opened the sea like this, and even like the Westerners, looking for colonies all over the world, then how will the Japanese react? When they open the country, it is normal for them to compete with us, although their strength is far from being comparable to that of the Ming Dynasty, but it is always bad to have a competitor. Especially at the doorstep, that's why we have to spread all kinds of false news, so that they can't know how the world is changing. ”

With a contemptuous smile, Wang Mingchuan's expression showed some sarcasm.

In the past few years, the Ming Dynasty has turned Japan into deaf and blind people, they don't know what is happening in the outside world at all, what they know is what the Ming Dynasty needs to let them know, as for what they don't want them to know, they naturally won't know.

Those Japanese people don't know that the current Ming Dynasty is not the Ming Dynasty of the past, and even the world has undergone drastic changes, and the Japanese are still implementing the lockdown order.

Perhaps, at the beginning, the Chamber of Commerce was not able to block this kind of news, but in the eyes of the current Beiyang Chamber of Commerce, it is a matter of course to do so, not to mention anything else, at least Japan's lockdown is extremely beneficial to the trade of the Chamber of Commerce.

But now, Japan has sent a mission.

The president said very much, but I felt that this kind of deception would not last long. You don't see the curiosity of those Japanese people in Daming now, they even can't wait to dress up as Mingren and walk around the streets of Daming, they have asked many times to leave the hotel and go to the streets. Moreover, from time to time, they also get news from the hotel guys, and even from the prostitutes of Quang Nam. ”

Mei Wenshan said worriedly, in his opinion, the news can be blocked for a while, but it is impossible to block it for a lifetime, and one day it will miss the line.

His words immediately aroused Wang Mingchuan's vigilance, and he warned in a deep voice almost immediately.

"How could it be? Remember, don't let your guard down on the representatives of the country because of their courtesy! We must not let them have the opportunity to contact the truth, we must let them believe the false news they have learned in the past as much as possible, and replace those Guangnan maids with the group specially cultivated in the Chamber of Commerce. ”

As a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Wang Mingchuan can know the attitude of the imperial court towards them from the reaction of the imperial court after those people came to the Ming Dynasty, maybe now the military department has taken over some work, but if they affect the overall plan of the imperial court, in case the imperial court blames it, it is not something he can afford.

After all, the reputation of the Wang family is there, in case the new account and the old account are calculated together, the Wang family will not be as simple as flowing thousands of miles. Whether it's unfounded or worrying about the gills, you can't wait until something happens to deal with it.

In fact, Wang Mingchuan didn't know that when he was worried there, worried that he would not be able to do a good job in the "reception work", Zhu Mingzhong himself, who was in the Zhongdu Palace, was also frowning.

"Japanese Mission ......"

He didn't expect that a few shells from Hakodate did not hit the Japanese army, but at once they opened the door of Japan and bombarded the Japanese mission.

"The black ship is coming, and it has become a whale ship attacking?"

With such a bitter smile in his heart, Zhu Mingzhong is now more worried about letting Japan see the world, just like the Japanese in another time and space, after the door of their country is opened, Japan has to deal with European and American countries. Due to their lack of experience, the shogunate wanted to learn from China. The Tokugawa shogunate realized that it was necessary to establish economic and diplomatic relations with China, both as a political counterweight to the European and American countries, as well as as a need to develop its own economy.

As a result, the shogunate decided to organize a delegation to visit China.

However, Japan did not have a masted ship with a large displacement to go to China, so it had to buy a merchant ship from a British merchant for 34,000 silver dollars and renamed it "Chitose Maru". On May 27, 1862, the merchant ship sailed from Nagasaki carrying a delegation of 51 officials, interpreters, feudal lords, merchants, and scholars.

When I first saw Shanghai, the Japanese were stunned, and the "Chitose Maru" trip to Shanghai completely subverted the Japanese view of China! It was those two months of visit that gave Japan a new understanding of both China and the West.

If it is said that in the past few thousand years, the Japanese have always looked up to China, after the "Chitose Maru" came to China, in their hearts they were more deeply disappointed and contemptuous of China; Although they themselves were victims, seeing that the once glorious and prosperous Chinese Empire was trampled on by the Western powers to such an extent, the Japanese, who had always admired the strong, began to be full of reverence for the West.

These changes in understanding strengthened Japan's determination to "break away from Asia and join Europe" and profoundly affected Japan's subsequent political choices.

In this era, if the Japanese saw the drastic changes that took place in the Ming Dynasty, what choice would they make?

Will it be like in another phase of time and space, with the determination to "break away from Asia and join Europe", once again send "envoys to the Tang Dynasty" to learn from China in an all-round way?

This is not what Zhu Mingzhong is willing to see, the reason why he went to great lengths to transmit false news to Japan is to let Japan immerse himself in the isolation of the country, maybe they may not be as "arrogant" as the Manchus, of course, they do not have the capital.

But it can keep them behind the rest of the world, paving the way for a final solution.

Now, what to do?

You can't afford to see this mission......

"Why don't you let them see it?"

Genius one second to remember the address of this site:. Mobile version reading URL: m.